March 7, 2024 Update: House Bill 2424 passed both houses and is now on the governor’s desk. This version eliminates biased language relating to wolf-killing and instructs the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to engage in government-to-government communication on wolf management with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation after the Fish & Wildlife Commission has approved a plan of engagement.
Meanwhile, House Bill 2423 did not receive a vote before the cutoff date to move out of committee this session, so it is effectively dead.
Your voice made a difference—thank you for speaking out for wolves! Historical information below.
Please oppose House Bill 2423 and House Bill 2424, which could undermine wolf recovery.
The House Agriculture Committee will hold a hearing on both bills at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, January 26, and House Bill 2424 has already been scheduled for a committee vote during an executive session at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, January 31.
The legislature needs to hear loud and clear: Washingtonians are dedicated to wolf recovery. Please take a few moments to register your opposition to both bill before 9:30 on Friday, January 26, and to submit written testimony by 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, January 27.
Washington’s wolves are depending on us!
Oppose HB 2423
HB 2423 is a revised version of a bill that stalled in committee last year (HB 1698), creating a “regional management plan” for eastern Washington, where most of the state’s wolves live. This plan would be drafted by a working group dominated by livestock and other local interests hostile to the presence of wolves. Make no mistake, despite the flowery rhetoric about how “majestic” wolves are, this bill is just the latest iteration of legislation intent on killing more of them.
- Despite what HB 2423 claims, the Washington wolf population has not recovered. To reach recovery, the Wolf Conservation & Management Plan requires established breeding pairs in each of three regions of the state. There are still no breeding pairs in the largest of the three recovery regions—the Southern Cascades/Northwest Coast.
- We need a healthy population of wolves in the northeast region to achieve statewide recovery. The Wolf Management Plan anticipated that recovery would start in one region, and then those wolves would disperse to the rest of the state. With neighboring Idaho and British Columbia waging war on their wolf populations, our best source for dispersing wolves may be northeast Washington. We must maintain a robust population there to reach recovery goals.
- There is already good reason to be concerned about the wolf population in that area of the state, where wolf mortality has skyrocketed. In the 9 years prior to 2021, WDFW reported that humans caused the deaths of 108 wolves in Washington, for an average of 12 a year. But in 2021 and 2022, this number more than doubled, to an average of about 30 wolves per year.
- Wolves are not inhibiting recovery of other species. HB 2423 purports to value wolves and their ecological benefits, but claims that counties that have “successfully recovered” wolves should be allowed “to maximize recovery efforts for all the vital species in Washington.” Wolves do not “recover” one county at a time—they must meet statewide objectives. Furthermore, continued protection of wolves does not impede the recovery of other species—in fact, it might help, as wolves contribute to healthier and more resilient ecosystems.
- HB 2423 would shut the public out of wolf management. It would nullify the current Wolf Advisory Group, exclude the public from the chance to review and comment on the proposed regional wolf plan, and ignore the requirement to evaluate any such plan under the State Environmental Policy Act.
Please take the following actions:
1. Sign in as “con” before 9:30 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 26.
2. Submit written testimony on HB 2423 before before 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 26. Please explain why a regional management plan will not work, and ask the committee to commit to statewide recovery.
Oppose HB 2424
HB 2424 would force the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to “align” its wolf management approach in northeastern Washington with the approach taken by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.
- HB 2424 is a circuitous way to allow wolf hunting in northeast Washington. The Colville Confederated Tribes have a treaty right to hunt wolves on their reservation and the “ceded territories” that extend north to the border. The Colville allow tribal members to hunt wolves year-round on both the reservation and in the ceded territories with no daily or yearly limits and have reported killing 21 wolves in the past two years. We support tribal treaty rights, but alignment with this policy would presumably mean that the state will also allow year-round, no-limits hunting in the ceded territories.
- The bill does not define “successful management of wolves.” HB 2424 claims the Colville’s approach to wolf management has been more “successful.” The bill does not indicate how it is defining success, and the language is purely subjective.
- Even in the context of the entire state wolf population, the current level of take is threatening recovery. A study performed last year revealed that at current levels of take, wolves have less than a 50% chance of achieving statewide recovery anytime within the next 50 years. If tribal hunting policies were extended to the ceded territories, where most of the state wolf population lives, the chances of recovery would plummet, and extirpation would become a real risk.
- The Washington wolf population has not recovered. There were only 216 wolves in the entire state at last count. To reach recovery, the Wolf Conservation & Management Plan requires there to be established breeding pairs in each of three regions of the state. There are still no breeding pairs in the largest of the three recovery regions—the Southern Cascades/Northwest Coast.
- This bill is the latest installment of the annual attempt to decimate wolves in the northeast region, which would doom recovery. We need a robust population of wolves in the northeast to achieve statewide recovery. The Wolf Management Plan anticipated that recovery would start in one region, and then wolves would disperse from that area to the rest of the state. With neighboring Idaho and British Columbia waging war on their wolf populations, our best source for dispersing wolves is likely to be northeast Washington.
Please take the following actions:
1. Sign in as “con” before 9:30 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 26.
2. Submit a written comment on HB 2424 before before 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 27. Please make sure the committee knows that the Washington public is committed to wolf recovery, and that this requires protecting wolves in the northeast corner.